Examining the technologies and processes for key management in the enterprise and the way forward into the virtualized environment

This investigation into cryptographic key management highlights the methods and rationale for the Department of Defense's approach in developing a national strategy for generating and managing crypto keys to protect sensitive data being processed on the various information systems. The study provides a way forward into how the systems would work and interoperate under the new architecture utilizing the cloud-based infrastructure for storage and services to the enterprise. This effort is part of the department's comprehensive Enterprise Security Management (ESM) program. The focus here is on the use of encryption techniques for protection and the crypto key management support they require. The paper also presents alternatives and tradeoffs for their realization.